migration assistant takes forever, guves no feedback.

Question

migration assistant takes forever, guves no feedback.

Just got my new iMac 24".

Trying the Migration assistant from my TimeMachine HD.

I selected the back-up date to transfer.

Then click "Continue" - the screen with items to transfer never shows up.

It's been a couple of hours now.

I understand this is a 1,2 TB back-up, but the items to transfer screen should now be appearing ?

Migration assistant gives no feedback of what is happening, I dont. know if it is working or if it is stalled.

??

iMac 24″, macOS 15.5

Posted on Jul 17, 2025 9:10 AM

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Answer 1

Old Toad

Level 10

213,533 points

Jul 17, 2025 10:33 AM in response to Denis Giguere

If you're using WiFi for the transfer it could take up to 8 hours or more to complete depending on the size being migrated.

If you need to do it again in the future the best and most reliable method is to migrate from a Time Machine backup with the TM drive connected directly to the new Mac.

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Answer 2

Jul 17, 2025 12:10 PM in response to Old Toad

I am using a Thunderbolt cable to my Time-Machine HD.

I finally made it work.

When asked by the Migration Assistant to choose a back-up within the Time Machine, I selected yesterday's back-up, not today's. I had the screen with items to transfer within minutes, and now I am on for three hours for the files to transfer.

At least I have a visual representation of what is happening.

Thanks for your time replying me.

Cheers

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Answer 3

Old Toad

Level 10

213,533 points

Jul 17, 2025 1:22 PM in response to Denis Giguere

How long has it been? When I migrated about 2.2 GB of user data when I got my newMac Mini M4 it took about a hour from a SSD with a ~500 MBs read and write speed.

In some previous installations a while back it seemed to stall out. I forced shutdown the Mac and rebooted. The process started up and continued to completion.

If your migration doesn't continue and finish you might try that.

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